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Kamado Akina’s POV

“...sighted?” I ask, Oyakata-sama is also practicing his stoicness today, and only nods at me, expressionless, instead of responding. “As in-”

“He walked through your village, Kamado-san.” Ubuyashiki-san states, her face looking slightly stiff as my shoulders raise up. “Kamado-san, please, the children-”

“The children are safe,” I promise, but my voice is barely audible, even to my own ears, and there’s a rumble building in my chest - a growl so deep, the Earth is shaking. “But when was Kibutsuji in my village?”

I wander through the surprisingly whole village, alone for the first time in months.

No one recognizes me.

No one calls out to me.

But they are all alive.

The village is still standing.

Children are playing fearlessly in the street.

It rattles something in my chest and shakes me to my core. Every breath I take shakes, and every step I take is careful. I double-check every alley, looking around the corner before I dare to pass, and I keep expecting to find someone slouched over, mid-transformation into a demon.

Or maybe dead. Kibutsuji likes to play sometimes too.

My hair is on end, my skin full of gooseflesh, and a cold sweat familiarizing itself with my back. I haven’t felt so afraid since I…

…since I fell into that door to the Infinity Castle.

“Something isn’t right here,” I whisper, quietly correcting my route around the village,

“TOO RIGHT YOU ARE-!” I elbow Rengoku in the diaphragm, making him drop like a sack of rocks, and Shinazugawa - the younger one, at least - gasps in surprise and horror. “Sorry, so, so sorry, Akina-”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Rengoku!” I snarl lowly, planting my hands on my knees as I bow over, I can feel gooseflesh rising and the small hairs on my body standing on end. “Are you two trying to send me to my grave early!?”

“Sorry, Hashira Akina! We-we just, thought you heard us-” Shinazugawa stutters, then cringes when I grab his shoulder, but I drag him to me easily and examine his eyes a little closer. “Wh-what-”

“Did you do this willingly or do I have to kill your brother?” I deadpan, staring at his black sclera and golden irises with open distaste, his mouth opens in fear, and I see his elongated canines. “I will kill him for you, child.”

“P-please, don’t, I-I just, he, I, ah-”

“Akina, what’s wrong?” Rengoku wheezes a little, his words heavy as he slouches close to us, but he examines Shinazugawa’s face too. The boy’s pupils shrink, and he bares his teeth-

I pull Rengoku out of the way in time to avoid him losing his face as the boy snaps at him.

“Easy, there, easy.” I murmur to him, he shakes his head, staggering back to him, “Easy, Genya, I’m here now, you’re safe-”

“No, I’m not.” He mumbles, baring his teeth - (He’s gonna snap again, he’s gonna aim for the throat kill him first kill kill kill-) - but I wrap my arms around him, I hold him close. “I made a mistake, I’m a monster now, I’m one of them. Sanemi’s gonna kill me, someone’s gonna kill me-”

My chest aches, my heart aches, and I share a look with Rengoku.

“No.” I tell him firmly, he whimpers, looking up at me, his fangs peek over his lips, just like Nezuko, big watery eyes just like Nezuko- “No one will hurt you. Not anymore.”

“You’re her’s now, Genya.” Rengoku murmurs, his voice is gentle, but I see his lips twitching, “Whether you want to be or not.”

“I’m not afraid to smack you again, Kyojuro.” I hiss at the bratty, twenty-something, who laughs off my threat, even as he clutches his stomach.

“All bark and no bite,” He teases, “C’mon, Akina-ane, we have a king to hunt!”

Kidbutsuji’s trail leads us to a shrine.

The shrine, actually.

“I don’t like this.” I utter, once again, touching the giant wolf that always, always seems to watch me. Half it’s paint is stripped off, but the wood is also bristled up and rough to the touch. “I don’t like this at all.”

“None of us like this.” Genya mutters, holding on to the sleeve of my haori, much like a small child would, “But we have to do it anyway-”

“Do you want to sit out?” Rengoku and I offer in sync, Genya recoils, attempting to step behind me-

SNAP

We all go rigid.

(That wasn’t a stick.)

Genya’s pupils go narrow, slit like a cat’s.

“Genya, kid, easy now-” Rengoku holds his hands out in a calming gesture, I barely have time to move him out of the way-

SNAP

Genya jaws bury themselves in my haori and the leather of my sheathes, his pupils are practically non-existant, and he’s growling low in his throat, snarling like an animal.

“Burn the corpse, Kyojuro, that’s what set him off!” I snarl, quickly grabbing a fistful of Genya’s hair, but I press more of my haori and leather into his mouth. Rengoku bounds past us, bruised and panting from how hard I threw him, but alive, and I hear his flint spark. “Easy Genya, it’s okay, we’re making the bad things go away, it’s okay, easy buddy, don’t hurt yourself, it’s okay-”

I begin muttering and murmuring the reassuring things I think he needs to hear, letting him shake and snarl and growl all he needs. I hold him to me, cradling him close as Rengoku burns the body, and I hold him as he calms down and starts crying.

“Genya?” Rengoku asks cautiously, seeing the boy go limp against me, I carefully pull the silk and leather out of his mouth, and Genya sobs.

“I’m sorry-” He chokes, dropping down against me, “I’m so sorry.”

“Let’s get into the shrine.” I murmur against his hair, “Then we can worry about guilt and sorry and everything else, okay?”

Genya whimpers, looking up at me. I smile warmly at him.

“You didn’t hurt me, Genya. You didn’t hurt Kyojuro, and the corpse is already dead.” I kiss his forehead softly, and his eyes well up further, big fat tears dripping down lazily like tear drops on windows. “I’m fairly certain that dead people can’t feel things, Genya, so I think you did a pretty good job.”

He chokes up again, and drops down, bawling against my chest.

I wilt, looking over at Rengoku, but he smiles hugely and gives me two thumbs up.

“Oh, so helpful, Rengoku.” I grumble, but gather up Genya in my arms, softly kissing him over his face as I do so. “Go open the door, you flaming brat.”

“Yes ma’am.” Rengoki snickers, quickly scrambling forward, “Any particular reason why we’re hiding in an abandoned shrine in the mountains instead of, you know, an inn? Or a Wisteria House?”

“I can smell the storm rolling in.” I deadpan, the lightening raising the small hairs on the back of my neck, the ice tickling my noise, and the pressure building in my skull like a balloon. “It should be here in…two hours? Two and a half? It’s close, at any rate, and this building has lasting through four centuries of people hiding out storms like this in it. It can stand us using it for a night.”

“Alr-”

POP

The air pressure in my nose changes the same time a bright light flashes in the doorway.

I stop ascending the stairs immediately. Genya stops sobbing, changing to meek whimpering against my neck, but he clings tighter, baring his teeth slightly. It’s a little harder to note if anything else changes as my ears start ringing, my eyes start showing static-y dots, my head fills with downy-like cotton fluff, and my chest suddenly feels heavy - like it’s filled with rocks.

(Where’s Rengoku? What’s wrong with the doorway? Why does it look brand-new? This is wrong. I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.)

“G-Genya,” I groan, pain attacking me on all sides, “Write to Oyakata-sama, use Karasu-”

I almost drop him, Karasu diving down from the treetops nearby.

“-this is a trap, I need to rescue Rengoku, stay back, if I don’t come back, go to Kocho and tell her.” I drop to my knees, my head almost exploding as lightening cracks through the open sky, raincloads chasing it. “Oh look, the storm is here.”

“Karasu, what’s wrong with Akina-san?” Genya whimpers fearfully,

“Storms do something with her head, whatever’s up with the shrine is probably messing with her too.” Karasu whispers to him, “She’s always been a little…sensitive, I guess, to pressure.”

I heave myself to my feet, stumbling on the stairs before catching myself on a spiky, sun-bleached wolf with a scar on it’s cheek.

“Sorry, Kawarama.” I mutter under my breath, then wonder where the hell the name comes from.

(I hope Genya didn’t hear that, I’m out of it as is, I can’t handle trying to explain something I don’t understand. Who the hell is Kawarama? Did I name this thing as a child and forget about it? Did one of my siblings name it and I forgot about it but the statue didn’t? What’s wrong with me now?)

“I just need to make it to the door,” I grumble to myself, holding to the statue as the world spins in front of me, the entire shrine seems to double, almost triple itself, and I hesitate to walk. The ringing in my ears is high-pitched, whiny, painful. “C’mon, you fucking pussy-”

Genya stands up under my other arm.

“...thanks, Genya.” I tell him, then groan as I try to hold my own weight. “I’m so sorry-”

“What was it you said about guilt and sorry? We’ll do that later?” He gives me an awkward, crooked smile, but his face is fuzzy, blurry, out-of-focus-

(This isn’t just the storm. Whatever the shrine is doing is really fucking me up.)

I give him an awkard smile back.

“Let’s go rescue Rengoku, yeah?” I lean on him, as much as I dare, but I’m so weak.

(He’s still a child, he thinks he’s a monster, he was just crying on me. This could not have come at a worse time.)